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Tuesday, July 06, 2004Kathy Rasmussen and her husband, Philip, provided free health insurance to their full-time workers when they bought the Lakewoods Resort near Cable 33 years ago. As costs rose, they asked staff members to pay half. Now, the Rasmussens are wrestling with whether they can continue providing insurance at all, as premiums rose steadily in recent years and then jumped suddenly from about $1,200 to about $2,000 for each employee. 'It is sad,' Rasmussen said from the lodge on Lake Namekagon in Wisconsin's North Woods. 'I don't think businesses can afford it anymore.' As a new federal report showed last week, the Rasmussens would not be the first business owners to cancel policies after being confounded by rising costs. Companies continue offering the insurance plans, but some employees don't sign up because they cannot afford the rising share of premiums they are asked to pay. And, at least in Ohio, if 50% or more of a company's full-time employees don't sign up, the insurance company won't cover the business. It's a lose-lose situation for small business owners. John Kerry says he'll fix that. His record says otherwise. And then there are the insurance scams. posted by Sydney on 7/06/2004 11:00:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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